A COUNCILLOR has been cleared of stealing possessions worth more than £200 from his ex-girlfriend's car.

Sean Parker-Perry, a member of Tameside council, was found not guilty by a jury after a two-day trial at Minshull Street Crown Court.

Judge Bernard Lever criticised the decision to bring the case to trial for what he described as "jealous and vindictive behaviour to do with a broken relationship".

Mr Parker-Perry, aged 30, of Ashworth Lane, Mottram Moor, said ex-girlfriend Lisa Knowles had put him through "nearly 18 months of hell" by making accusations about him.

He had been charged with stealing a portable CD player, a mobile phone charger and hands-free kit.

The court was told that Mr Parker-Perry had towed away a Vauxhall Corsa - which he had bought with Miss Knowles - from her home in Hollingworth, near Glossop, in August last year. They had split up a year earlier.

Miss Knowles, who has since married someone else, was on holiday abroad at the time.

Returned

She told police some items had been taken from the car.

Mr Parker-Perry, a train driver, said the items were not in the car when he took it.

He said that everything she owned in the car had been returned promptly to her solicitor.

He claimed that his wife Fiona, who he married after he and Miss Knowles split up, had taken a photograph to show what was in the car's boot when he reclaimed the vehicle.

He said he had asked his wife to take a photograph of the open boot of the car as he expected his former girlfriend to make allegations about what had been in the vehicle.

He added: "I had suffered at her hands for nearly two years and I was by then slightly paranoid. We knew that she would tell the police that items had been stolen."